community investment guidelinesfiles.the-group.net/library/kgf/responsibility/pdfs/cr_11.pdf ·...

Community Investment Guidelines

MarCh 2009

Our COmmunity

Contact

For further information please contact: [email protected]

Kingfisher plc 3 Sheldon Square, Paddington London W2 6PX

+44 (0)20 7372 8008

www.kingfisher.com/Cr

Contents1. Introduction 1

2. Kingfisher strategy, issues and opportunities 1

3. Understanding communities 3

4. Examples of Community Investment Projects 4

5. Guidance on good practice and meeting ‘Steps’ 5

5.1. Some key principles to effective community investment 5

5.2. Partnership Agreements 6

5.3. Monitoring and evaluation to measure the impact of community investment 6

5.4. Meeting requirements of ‘Steps’ 7

5.5. Kingfisher Group Good Practice 9

appendices: available as separate documents

appendix 1 Group Community Investment Policy

appendix 2 Future homes – Kingfisher’s Sustainability Strategy

appendix 3 Kingfisher’s Corporate Centre Volunteering Policy

appendix 4 Sample Partnership agreement

appendix 5 Sample Evaluation Form

© Kingfisher plc 2009

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Kingfisher Community Investment Guidelines

1. Introduction

Through these guidelines Kingfisher aims to support and encourage Operating Companies (OpCos) to invest in their local communities, through offering practical advice on how they can create lasting opportunities and benefits for their communities, their operating business and the Kingfisher Group.

In some communities and environments in which we work there may be wide and varied ways to engage with neighbourhood agencies, and to support charity and community projects. This might be through offering cash donations or in-kind support, e.g. employee time or waste donations. However, we appreciate that some OpCos work in communities which might be difficult to engage with, and where there may be limitations or barriers due to laws, local culture or lack of experience.

In response to feedback from some or our OpCos, these guidelines provides a ‘tool kit’ of advice and acts as a training aid to effectively invest in communities and meet requirements of ‘Steps’. This includes an introduction to community investment and stakeholders, an outline of the issues for Kingfisher, our OpCos and the communities we work in; general principles of effective giving and how to measure the impact of community investment. There is then some specific guidance on meeting each element, of each level, of Steps (Minimum Action, Policy Standard and Leadership Position), followed by some Group good practice case studies.

The Corporate Responsibility (CR) Team will be happy to support OpCos by offering further advice and support on Community issues or initiatives. A wide range of information, ways to share ideas and experiences is also available through our Intranet (Kingnet), our annual CR Reports and ‘Steps’, as well as through internal forums and training opportunities.

The guidelines should be used in conjunction with our Group Community Investment Policy (see appendix 1), ‘Future Homes’, our Sustainability Strategy (see appendix 2) and our Corporate Centre Volunteering Policy (see appendix 3).

2. Kingfisher strategy, issues and opportunities

Kingfisher’s strategy and goals

Our current Sustainability Strategy, ‘Future Homes’, includes ‘Our Community’ Goal and our Community Investment Policy Standard. Please refer to Kingfisher Cr Supporting Policy Standards for this Policy Standard. Our Kingfisher Issue Policy Standard 12: (Community Investment) outlines our aim to be a good neighbour in all the communities we serve.

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Business issues and opportunities

There are a variety of UK, EU and international survey questionnaires which Kingfisher has to undertake, in order to retain our high profile and reputation for corporate CR leadership. These take account of our Group-wide community investments, and which benchmark Kingfisher alongside other businesses in the retail and other sectors. Increasingly the area of Community Investment expectations are rising, including:

Demonstrating leadership and management of Community Investment programmes.

Quality of community programmes.

Measuring and reviewing programmes through monitoring and evaluation.

Kingfisher is proud of its charitable and community giving achievements, which bring potential benefits to thousands of people and communities across the world.

regulatory and reputational risks – Community

Being seen as a poor neighbour – including negative media/publicity

Negative social or local environmental impacts leading to planning refusals or delays, and poor relations with community leaders and key agencies, e.g. local authorities.

Community, employee or NGO protests.

Damage to brand leading to decrease in sales and difficulties in recruiting employees from local communities.

Working with charities who do not comply with local laws and who may be unscrupulous, e.g. they do not account for or report on their income, or the impact of their work in terms of environmental or social benefits.

Opportunities – Community

Meeting Strategic objectives and achieving ‘Steps’.

Positive PR and potential to win awards.

Good community relations speeds up planning and development processes, and builds long term goodwill.

Promoting loyalty, respect for company property and innovation through employee and community engagement.

Improving customer loyalty, enhancing corporate and brand reputation through CR agenda.

Improving employee loyalty and employees retention – internal research proves that employee engagement in community projects improves the sense of pride in working for a Kingfisher OpCo, and pride in their local community.

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3. Understanding communities

Understanding what we mean by ‘Community’

“Community relates to the interface between business and society, which can be positively or negatively affected by a project, product or investment on a local or global level.” (from Business in the Community Survey Guidelines/UK)

This single statement gives a broad definition of what community relates to though, as indicated above, we fully recognise that communities are diverse, complex and can vary by district, region and country.Definition from Collins Dictionary:

all the people living in one district

a group of people with shared origins or interests

the public, society

a group of countries with certain interests in common.

Community Stakeholders are those who either affect, or are affected by, the activities of a company. They include: Investors Central and local governments Local authorities International and local pressure groups/NGO’s Community leaders Resident groups Local stakeholder forums Customers Employees Trade Unions Media Suppliers.

Issues which Communities might be facing

These will vary from country to country, and community to community. They might include:

Deprivation through a poor social and physical environment, such as lack of housing and local services which leads to homelessness, health problems, poor education or increased deaths.

A need to raise and improve social awareness/tolerance of community issues.

Social exclusion due to diversity within communities, including accessibility and discrimination due to cultural or other background.

Lack of appropriate skills pool in communities to sustain the current or future workforce requirements.

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Vulnerable customers such as those who are physically disabled, older people or people with learning disabilities.

Tackling local crime and fear of crime.

All community issues can have an affect on our OpCo businesses, and from research and internal evaluation of projects, we know that supporting community issues can, in turn, bring long-term business benefits from investment, including increase in volume of customers, employee satisfaction/retention and positive media.

4. Examples of Community Investment Projects

Cash donations made to national, regional or local charities.

Projects developed in partnership with key stakeholders, e.g. national charities, which address global or central government concerns, appropriate to an OpCo business environment.

Programmes to provide skills training, work experience and support employment for local people – these may be worked in partnership with specialist agencies.

Partnerships with national NGOs or community stakeholders, to encourage enterprise development in the community to alleviate environmental or social disadvantage.

Cash collected by local charities outside stores.

Projects which may work with a particular community organisation to support a diverse or vulnerable group, e.g. people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with illnesses/disabilities, homeless people, children in need, older people etc.

Being involved in social and economic work to improve the appearance and quality of life for local residents, e.g. work aligned to local authorities/councils.

Grant or award schemes to support local projects and improve the environmental or social quality of life.

Employee Volunteering programmes which allow employees to take an agreed amount of time out of their work place to support a community project – this may be at store or corporate office levels and hourly payment rates count as ‘in kind contributions’.

Employee matched funding schemes, e.g. where an employee gives an amount to a charity, which is then matched by the company.

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5. Guidance on good practice and meeting Kingfisher ‘Steps’ requirements

5.1. Some key principles to effective community investment

1. Know your stakeholders, engage and respond to them – involve your internal stakeholders, e.g. centrally appointed Community/CR representative, teams or individual ‘champions’. Research and seek out the community organisations who you have an impact on, or who have an impact on your business. These would include local authorities and community neighbourhood groups. There may be forums, networks or membership groups which you can join locally, regionally or nationally.

2. Seek good advice and understand your obligations – there may be a variety of sources such as national or local community policies/regulations and a range of agencies that exist to support communities. Look at what other similar sized businesses have done or are doing in the locality where you work. This kind of information is often available through desk-top research, e.g. looking at websites and comparing what you do with other organisations.

3. Give responsibly – be knowledgeable about the causes and organisations you are supporting. Even if you do not have time to engage directly with the end recipients of your giving, work with your partners to make sure that they financially account for and report on the project and their organisation. Agree with them how they will account for, and report on, the impact that your giving will make, i.e. what has changed for the better as a result of it?

4. Match community programmes and projects to business objectives – think about what might impact on your business such as local employment, chronic health issues, local community and customer needs etc. Match projects also by how they meet corporate objectives (Future Homes strategy/Goal 5) and ‘Steps’ requirements.

5. agree what you want to achieve and set some objectives – work with your partners to make it clear what will be achieved through your giving. Create a partnership agreement (see sample – appendix 4), even if this is quite simple to begin with, and monitor this with your partners. This is a positive way to engage, set your partnership in motion and build trust for both parties which can be built on over time. It is also evidence of good monitoring.

6. Set your programmes annually, at the beginning of the financial year – publicise them to your stakeholders externally and internally so that everyone is clear about your strategy/objectives, plans and programmes for the year – this may help to avoid ongoing appeals which you can’t meet.

7. Keep stakeholders up-to-date with your policy, progress and successes through briefings, reports and web updates, etc.

8. Put policy and guidelines in place to make sure that your central offices and stores understand your strategy and structure for giving, and what you expect of them including responsibilities.

9. Measure the success of your project or initiative – to meet requirements of ‘Steps’ (Leadership Position) and to demonstrate the impact that you have made on community and society to your Stakeholders including benchmarking surveys, awards, community leaders, local government, etc. Make sure that your evidence of success, and what you say about your achievements, is robust and objective, e.g. backed by data, or evaluated by an external agency.

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5.2. Partnership agreements

A Partnership Agreement is a good way to develop and nurture relationships with partners, and set out exactly what you are hoping to achieve and how. We have no set template for a Partnership Agreement, as these will vary for individual OpCos, but we recommend that you include:

The aims and objectives of what you any your partners want to achieve, i.e. what you and your partners will do through the donation or in-kind support you are offering, and the impact it will make on the environment, peoples lives or communities.

Agreement on key contacts who will manage the project or initiative, and responsibilities of individuals.

Principles of how you wish to work together, e.g. communication, how often you will meet etc to make sure that things go well.

How the project will be monitored and evaluated to meet the agreed aims and objectives, e.g. through face to face meetings, updates and reports or formal evaluation.

Written Partnership Agreements can be used as evidence towards ‘Steps’, or to meet external benchmarking requirements, e.g. awards or surveys.

A sample of a Partnership Agreement is included in these guidelines (please see appendix 4). This can be used as a local template and adapted to suit individual OpCos and their programmes.

5.3. Monitoring and evaluation to measure the impact of community investment

Being transparent and accounting for our CR programmes is increasingly important. As a Group, Kingfisher is expected to demonstrate how it measures the success of community investment both at central and OpCo levels.

Some OpCos have been doing this for some time, through formal monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. Some now have quite sophisticated management systems in place to do this, including how to measure repeat custom and the value of additional spend. This may include a third party involved in the evaluation to make it more objective and meaningful. However, other OpCos may be at the early stages of developing community investment programmes, or in countries where these sort of formal processes are not currently required or recognised.

To help those with less developed monitoring and evaluation we would like to offer the following principle guidance:

Use a Partnership Agreement and review progress in stages, e.g. at the beginning, at intervals during and at the end of a project’s life.

Make regular notes from meetings including any actions and follow ups.

Review actions and follow ups and include them in subsequent meetings.

If you are working on a long term project, i.e. over a number of years, ask your partners to submit end of year reports with details of what impact your support has had on the environment, people or communities.

Carry out an evaluation with stakeholders – this might be through a simple questionnaire completed by a community organisation or a group of individuals who might have

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benefited from a project. Bear in mind that feed back from the people who have directly benefited from your investment adds a great deal of weight to evaluation.

Use the evaluation feedback to put together a report on what your donation or in-kind support has achieved, or write a case study. Use these towards ‘Steps’ reporting, and to share with stakeholders, e.g. via your website.

Include employees in your evaluation, i.e. what the experience meant to them, how it improved their sense of pride in working for you and in their community.

Include all written evidence when reporting in to ‘Steps’, or when you need to submit evidence to external stakeholders.

We have included a basic evaluation form in this guidelines pack (please see appendix 5).

5.4. Meeting requirements of ‘Steps’

The following gives guidance on answering questions and types of evidence for each element of the ‘Steps’ requirements. Please note that at the time of writing these guidelines all but one OpCo had reached Minimum action, and the guidelines are intended to assist OpCos to move on to the two higher levels.

MiniMuM Action

1. Do you have examples of contributions to charities and community organisations (either through cash donations, gifts-in-kind or employee time)?

Note Evidence required – please provide examples.

Further guidance – question 1:Evidence might include data collected, copies of community programme details promotional materials, etc.

2. Do you have procedures in place to respond to complaints and requests from local residents and community organisations?

Note Evidence required – please provide evidence to show how complaints are responded to. Other requests might include responses to a specific community issue, need or concern.

Further guidance – question 2:Evidence might include a specific procedure for handling complaints by a particular department, data spreadsheet detailing complaints and how they have been dealt with and resolved. It might also include a communications between the OpCo and a community organisation, e.g. a letter raising an issue and a written response to deal with it.

Policy tArget

3. Do you have procedures in place to inform and involve local residents and communities when developing new stores?

Note Evidence required – Please provide details of procedures, e.g. consultation and formal notices.

Further guidance – question 3:Evidence might include letters from the OpCo to community organisations inviting them to a consultation meeting, a media communications through a local newspaper, a survey or questionnaire. It may also include a formal written policy for involving local stakeholders, with details of community engagement, local charters or agreements.

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4. Do you have a criteria to guide your community investment programme?

Note The criteria may be set out in a formal community policy or framework document. It should clearly set out your approach towards community investment (including charitable or community stakeholder partnerships) and ensure that it is in line with business and CR objectives. For an example, please see Kingfisher corporate head office Charities Policy and Good Practice Guide for Developing Commercial Partnerships (see Kingfisher website – www.kingfisher.com/CR – click Charity). Evidence required – please attach the criteria on community investment.

5. Do you have a volunteering programme to enable employees to get involved in local community projects?

Note Evidence required – please provide details of your volunteering programme.

Further guidance – questions 5:Evidence might include a written policy (please see Kingfisher’s Corporate Centre Policy at XX). It might also include a time limited programme specific to a particular department or a local store, e.g. group or individual volunteering schemes.

leAdershiP Position

6. Do you formally evaluate the impact and benefits of your key community partnership projects?

Note The evaluation process should assess the impacts and benefits to both your business and the community. Supporting evidence – please attach details of the evaluation process and outcome of the evaluations carried out in the past year.

Further guidance – question 6:Evidence might include data collected which provides indicators of success, charts and graphs, or a report written by an external evaluation specialist to verify data.

7. Do you engage with external stakeholders to develop learning and understanding on community issues?

Note Evidence required – please provide details, e.g. membership of relevant associations, meetings and benchmarking.

Further guidance – question 7:Evidence might include partnership arrangements between your business and a community agency, attendance at community forums, consultation groups or work with local authorities. Evidence might be at corporate or regional levels and could include a programme implemented at store level.

8. have you received any awards or external recognition for your community initiatives?

Note Evidence required – please provide details of any awards or external recognition.

Further guidance – question 8:Awards might include those made by national and reputable bodies. It might also include benchmarking, e.g. ranking levels from surveys. External recognition might be a high level media article, e.g. written by a national newspaper or organisation of influence. It might also include your work being featured on a national website.

9. have you developed any innovative community initiatives?

Note These should be examples of innovative projects or initiatives set up with local communities that demonstrate a new approach that is not already being implemented. Evidence required – please provide details.

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Further guidance – question 9:Initiatives should focus on finding approaches and solutions to meet community issues. They might include those which focus on:

Partnership work with specialised agencies who exist to tackle community issues, e.g. housing and health.

Creative communications and interactions with communities to reach disadvantaged groups. Ways to tackle problems of deprivations, such as poverty or unemployment. Ways that skills of the workforce are used to support the community, i.e. corporate volunteering. Creative use of waste donations.

5.5. Kingfisher Group Good Practice

The following are examples of good practice of Kingfisher (corporate centre) and OpCo community investment initiatives.

Kingfisher Corporate programmes

Charity/community partnerships

In 2006, Kingfisher launched a new Charities Policy and guidance for developing commercial partnerships. Also in 2006 Kingfisher chose the following charities to support over three years, 2006–2009. These charities reflect the international issues for our company and business operations, including those within our Corporate Centre location in the UK as well as in our supply chain.

It is Kingfisher’s policy to review and evaluate charity partnerships on an annual basis. Our Charities programme is currently full, and our next review will be in January 2009. Unfortunately we are unable to deal with any enquiries about future programmes until this time.

Our international charity, fighting for children in the UK and around the world.

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motivationquality of lifeA UK based charity providing wheelchairs to people in the developing world who are living in poverty.

hIV/aIDS partnershipKingfisher is working with suppliers in South Africa to help them implement HIV workplace programmes.

A dynamic national charity supporting blind and partially sighted people in all aspects of their lives.

Community Payback, which forms part of the Safer Neighbourhoods programme. In addition to our main charity partnerships, Kingfisher may undertake small-scale fundraising activities for other charities as outlined in our Charity Policy. Our employees are also able to take advantage of paid volunteering days, pay roll giving and matched funding. Further details can be found on our Giving Schemes page.

Kingfisher asia Ltd (KaL) – awarded the Caring Company Logo

Kingfisher’s overseas sourcing office in China (KAL) has been awarded the Caring Company Logo for 2007/08 by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. The company was nominated for the award by the Hong Chi Association HK and WWF HK for its activities in four areas: volunteering, community giving, caring for the environment (e.g. office recycling) and employee welfare (e.g. flexible working hours).

Action for blind people

CommunityPayback

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OpCo initiatives

B&Q China and Kingfisher – helping children in China

Kingfisher and B&Q China have continued to work in partnership with Save the Children on a youth justice project in Jinxing, Yunnan Province. A new Community Activity Centre was built in 2006, which provides a range of activities and facilities for children in a safe and supportive environment. Between November 2006 and September 2007, over 4,000 children and 500 college volunteers participated in activities run by the youth justice project.

B&Q China also donated £2,000 to the children’s emergency fund set up by Save the Children following the cyclone in Bangladesh in November 2007.

B&Q UK

In 2008 B&Q committed to become a ‘One Planet Living’ business, a global initiative based on ten principles of sustainability developed by BioRegional and WWF, which aims to speed progress to a more sustainable society. B&Q is the first retailer to join One Planet Living (OPL) and they have developed a commercial relationship with BioRegional for over 13 years.

As part of the initiative, in 2007 B&Q reviewed its two key community programmes, Better Neighbour Grants and Better Neighbour Awards, in order to revise these and embed their Community initiatives in to the strategic objectives of the OPL initiative and SAP. Two new programmes, OPL Grants and OPL Awards, were launched in January 2008 and these are set to three of the OPL principles and the goals linked within their Sustainability Action Plan, as well as within the OPL grant criteria.

MarCh 2009

Kingfisher plc 3 Sheldon Square, Paddington London W2 6PX

+44 (0)20 7372 8008

www.kingfisher.com/Cr

For further information please contact: [email protected]

© Kingfisher plc 2009

community investment guidelinesfiles.the-group.net/library/kgf/responsibility/pdfs/cr_11.pdf ·...

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